Girdis Guitars LogoDesign & Photo Credits

Yew Parlor

Yew back and sides with western red cedar top
“I got to play the guitar that you made for Chris recently- and I must say, I'm a huge fan of your un-huge guitars! You do get a really big sound out of such a small box. Impressive!”
-Steve Grimes

The Girdis Parlor Guitar

This model consistently draws two comments. The first one is amazement at how much sound is coming out of such a small guitar. The second comment is usually "it sounds as good as it looks".

At 12 5⁄8" across the lower bout, this is a small-bodied guitar. This size was common during the second half of the 1800's and into the early 1900's. After repairing, and subsequently playing a few of these old gems, Rob was motivated to design a version for modern times. The result is the Girdis Parlor Guitar.

A crisp and sparkly high end is an inherent quality of a small bodied guitar. As such, he pays special attention during the construction process to the design and construction variables that will bring out the bass. This is a model Rob is careful to not "overbuild". The original parlor guitars are 100-plus years old now. The Girdis Parlor Guitar is built to sound good this century as well as next.

Great care is taken to match the overall stiffness and responsiveness of the soundboard to the lower string tension that results from using a short scale length. Rob has designed this model to work best with a typical set of light gauge strings. The result is a small guitar that is easy to hold, play, and travel with, is lightly built, well balanced, and will put out more sound than one would expect from a guitar of this size.

This is a pleasant guitar for Rob to build. He can use extra fine materials that aren't large enough for other models and have more leeway to decide just where the pattern will work best to suit aesthetic considerations. The tops on these guitars will always be AAA or master grade spruce. One last reason these are fun to build is that they are just too cute!

This model is available in both a 24" scale length, called the PG610, and a regular 24.9" scale length, the PG630. (The PG is for Parlor Guitar, and the 610 and 630 represent the scale length in millimeters). Both versions feature a 12 fret neck to body joint.

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